Agreed. Harden has made the Rockets organization lazy. They have basically said that he can't ever be human and have an off night.
Stephen Jackson had repeatedly called Rivers “trash” on IG during that series and also stated something along the lines of “Austin Rivers isn’t an NBA player”. That’s probably what the uncomfortableness stems from. Jackson also said in those same IG comments that Tucker was “trash” too and that he just “plays hard”.
Different conferences bro. Kawhi wasn't dragging that Spurs team to any finals after Duncan, Manu and Parker retired. LeBron didn't even make the playoffs. The East has gotten better but the Western Conference, top to bottom, is stacked.
First off, I respect the hell out of your journalism, and second, I totally agree with you. Austin was defensive at first and took a strong stance. Then you have three ESPN talking heads trying to be incendiary. Austin was laughing it off. Conversation got derailed. It eventually went back to legit Rockets talk from Austin’s voice, then these dudes go in on James again trying to get a headline from Rivers. He again denied their “advances.” Much respect to Austin Rivers. Class act. Never thought I would say that.
I respect your opinion. But those "strange" things he has a history of doing only seem to happen at the highest stage. If he has a bad shooting game then so be it, go 5-37. But Harden attempting one shot in the final moments with Durant hurt to me is quitting. That's equivalent to Steph doing that with Klay & KD hurt
whatever they say, fact is we lost game 6, and they can throw any blame to james and chris and everybody, it is deserving only
I only watched the highlights because i was in Europe for game 6 but i watched the game last night and don’t see how they can blame game 6 on harden for not wanting it.
By this logic, if the team loses, a player who scores 50 points can be blamed equally to someone who scored 0 on 0/10 shooting. I think it's possible to have a more nuanced view of things than that.
Yep. The problem with what happened on that particularly show is that Stephen Jackson has no business being a paid NBA analyst. He's not particularly interesting or articulate (unlike Vince, for example). He's lazy in his research if he bothers to do any at all--yet even so, he's firmly convinced he's right. And he wasn't a great enough player to give him a pass on either of those things (like Isaiah Thomas).
He was just on First Take. Stephen A asked him about the reported confrontation between CP and Harden. He basically denied it happening. Said if it did happen, it wasn't in the locker room and could have been behind closed doors. Also said everyone was so disappointed after the loss, no one even talked and everyone just got dressed and left the locker room.
Hmm, doesn't seem right. When James entered the game with 8:34 left, the rockets were up 89-85. He then did have 12 points, although 8 came after the rockets were down 102-97 with 2 minutes left. It was very hard to come back at that point. The defense also completely fell apart and harden had 3 turnovers, including one when the rockets were up 95-93 and resulted in a layup. Rockets never led again. There was also this: Steph Curry hits 3 and the Rockets just throw the ball away LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL https://t.co/Jmi6yfnze3
So, on The Jump we have 1) Pippen 2) McGrady 3) Jackson 3 former players constantly throwing shade at the Rockets. Brutal.
How did harden shrink under pressure when he scored 41 game 3 and was the leading scorer the last 4 games plus the fact draymond intentionally gouged his eyes out which he still played through first 2 games. What more can this man do for you people to be satisfied? How about you go out there on the court and give a try? For all the naysayers and doubters It’s not that easy nor simple. Leave the man alone. He’s growing his thriving he’s getting better on both ends of the court every year. So get off his back and stop treating him as some workhorse Slave under some extremely unreasonable and unrealistic standard which you people can’t uphold yourself if god gave you the talent and opportunity to play in the nba.
